The speech of the new president of France, carried out last Sunday in the Museum of the Louvre (Paris), has been crumbled by several national analysts, who could not avoid seeing some important political phantasms in France’s history.

The two presidential candidates of France, the socio-liberal Emmanuel Macron and the far right Marine Le Pen, held a brutal televised debate on Wednesday evening, three days before the presidential runoff elections on May 7.

Emmanuel Macron (Center) and Marine Le Pen (far right) advanced to the runoff in France’s presidential elections on May 7. After the UK’s vote to leave the European Union and the US vote for the political novice Donald Trump as president, the French presidential race is the latest election to shake up establishment politics by kicking out the figures that stood for the status quo.

A police officer was gunned down in the heart of this capital on Thursday, just three days before French voters will cast ballots in the first round of the presidential election. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack

By now it is settled wisdom that we are witnessing the rise of radical forces on the left and right around the globe. Populists of both varieties, who share a disdain for globalization, are energized, and certain that the future is going their way. But the center is rising again, even in the heart of the old world.